Color imaging thermal transfer elements capable of transferring electronically stored image information onto an image support as a color image generally require time-consuming separate heating steps for at least each primary color of the image. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,395,718 discloses a thermal transfer color recording medium having a mosaic pattern of different color dyes having a different melting point for each color. Transfer of a color image to an image support requires individually heating the various colored dyes in the mosaic with a heating head.
Processes such as the one described above require time-consuming multiple heating steps to cause image transfer. Thus, there is a need for a color imaging element capable of quick and easy thermal image transfer. It is toward such a color imaging thermal transfer element capable of transferring electronically stored image information onto an image support as a color image that the present invention is directed.